of the same breed. But the "chief-rent," or "eric for
kindly blood," did not suffice in the year 590 to satisfy
King Hugh. The colony had grown great, and, like some
modern monarchs, he proposed to make it pay for its
success. Columbkill, though a native of Ireland, and a
prince of its reigning house, was by choice a resident
of Caledonia, and he stood true to his adopted country.
The Irish King refused to continue the connection on the
old conditions, and declared his intention to visit Alba
himself to enforce the tribute due; Columbkill, rising
in the Assembly, declared the Albanians "for ever free
from the yoke," and this, adds an old historian, "turned
out to be the fact." From the whole controversy we may
conclude that Scotland never paid political tribute to
Ireland; that their relation was that rather of allies,
than of sovereign and vassal; that it resembled more the
homage Carthage paid to Tyre, and Syracuse to Corinth,
than any modern form of colonial dependence; that a
federal connection existed by which, in time of war, the
Scots of Argyle, and those of Hibernia, were mutually
bound to aid, assist, and defend each other. And this
natural and only connection, founded in the blood of both
nations, sanctioned by their early saints, confirmed by
frequent intermarriage, by a common language and literature,
and by hostility to common enemies, the Saxons, Danes,
and Normans, grew into a political bond of unusual
strength, and was cherished with affection by both nations,
long ages after the magnates assembled at Drom-Keth had
disappeared in the tombs of their fathers.